Your lifestyle, eating habits, and exercise are all factors that affect the way your cells age. However, researchers have now identified a factor that's beyond your control but still impacts aging.
Well, it's not hereditary factors that they are talking about. A new study suggests that a person's biological age may also be influenced by whether their grandparent attended college.
A person's socioeconomic factors, including those of their parents, can influence long-term health and longevity. However, a new study led by researchers from Drexel University, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of California and the University of North Carolina, investigated how the socioeconomic status of grandparents might affect aging in future generations.
"We know from animal studies that health is transmitted across several generations, from grandparents to grandchildren. But we now have robust human data that shows that not only do parents' socioeconomic factors play a role in their children's health, but that influence goes back an extra generation as well," lead author Agus Surachman said in a news release.
The study noted that the grandchildren of college-educated grandparents showed slower biological aging than those whose grandparents did not graduate from college. This finding is based on an analysis of five different epigenetic-based aging clocks, which used saliva swabs to examine DNA methylation and predict an individual's age based on their cellular health profile.
"The link between a grandparent's socioeconomic status and a grandchild's epigenetic age is a remarkable finding, across generations. This opens up a myriad of possible explanations and will need to be replicated. For now, we know that the mother's poorer metabolic health is a partial mediator of this relationship," said senior author Elissa Epel.
Earlier studies have shown a link between traumatic experiences, such as the Holocaust and genocides, and the methylation of genes among survivors and their children. The new findings suggest that the level of education in one generation can influence the extent of DNA methylation three generations later
"Parental early life socioeconomic advantages may be associated with better health profile of their offspring through epigenetic mechanisms, especially through the maternal line. This understanding about the intergenerational nature of transmission of social advantages and health should make us re-think our values. I'd like to see more resources invested in education and health, a factor which shapes offspring health before we are even born," Surachman added.
